


ALTERED/SYNDICATE

by AsterCastell



Series: IMMATERIA [1]
Category: Control (Video Game), Immateria
Genre: ACSS, ADSs (Immateria), AWEs (Control), Aegis Civil Security Syndicate, Altered Items (Control), Alterexigency (Immateria), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Chromadimensions (Immateria), Conspiracy, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, FBC, Federal Bureau of Control, Gen, Government Agencies, Government Conspiracy, Objects of Power (Control), Original Character(s), Post-Canon, Post-Game(s), Post-Game: Control, Spoilers, The Fold (Immateria), The Oldest House (Control), Thresholds (Control), Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-20 17:41:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30008547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsterCastell/pseuds/AsterCastell
Summary: When a backdoor into the Oldest House is discovered through a color-coded dimensional gateway in an alternate universe, the Federal Bureau of Control and the Aegis Civil Security Syndicate must join forces to fight for survival against the most deadly anomalies from both worlds.
Series: IMMATERIA [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2207460
Comments: 1





	1. ALTERED/SYNDICATE




	2. Signal Unknown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jesse Faden receives a strange call from another dimension. Stranger than usual, that is.

**< Director / Director. > **

**< Transmission received / sent. AM / FM. Transmission sent / received. > **

**< Urgent attention required. Unexpected interstice / crisis. Slide Projector / Peephole has revealed new House / Newfoundland. > **

**< Unknown caller / mirror. You / they must speak to them / you. Pick up the phone, please. >**

* * *

After assuming the seat of the Director of the Federal Bureau of Control, Jesse Faden became accustomed to the sound of that beguiling ringing. The Hotline is the most secure line of communication in the world, with direct link access to beings of extraordinary standing. To hear that bell meant that someone or something beyond the veil of known reality wished to speak directly to the Director - a high honor bestowed only to the Director. Most often, this meant words of wisdom from directors of the past or voices of bemusement from the imposing inverted black pyramid known as The Board. In all matters, Jesse was much unlike the previous holders of the title, and commonly disagreed with the authority of the Board. For her, the ringing conferred a dreadful feeling of inevitable condescension from those who believed the direction she was taking the FBC was not the right direction.

This time, though, something was different. There was an almost microtonal difference in the sound of the Hotline's ringing. It was familiar in a way Jesse could understand, yet twisted ever so slightly as to be disconcerting. Every fourth , no, fifth clang of the bell was discordant. It was subtle enough that only one intimately attuned to the normal sound could possibly have noticed it. Evidently, the Board had noticed it long before Jesse had - they had summoned her to their own realm, the Astral Plane, just to talk about it. Normally, they would call her on the Hotline like any other extradimensional entity, but even they were unfamiliar with the caller this time. This was unprecedented, and more than enough to cause great alarm in Jesse. It was clear that this was no ordinary "< We / You need to talk about Dissent / Former >" call.

"That doesn't sound right. That doesn't even sound like the Hotline. I can still hear it, but it sounds... different. Wrong. What do you think?"

A blue shimmer formed over the intricate golden design on the wall of the Director's Office. It seemed to Jesse that Polaris, her guiding star, thought the same thing. With a press of the button under the oaken desk, the gold façade opened and gave way to a hidden passage that lead right to the Hotline Chamber. The ringing became clearer, and noticeably more distorted as the concrete wall slid open. Polaris glimmered through Jesse's vision as if to reassure her.

"Maybe the ringer just needs replaced. The Board's been calling us way more than usual, maybe they're wearing it out."

Polaris once again shimmered in the direction of the hall, as if to say, 'don't be silly, just get in there'.

"Right. Of course. Never a dull workday around here, huh?"

As the director stepped into the passageway, a familiar yet newly peculiar vision took hold. Five slate black pillars in a red-sand desert, but now, there were five men hopelessly lost in the noise, too. Jesse made a point of getting to know the everymen of the Bureau, but she did not recognize these explorers. The alien locale they were in, however... She knew the place very well. Seeing the state they were in, the urgency of the situation suddenly became much clearer. One of them appeared to be frustrated with a device in his hand, continually calling out in characteristic broken parlance:

* * *

_"Malevolent force... Chromadimension... Abstract morphology... Conceptual corruption... Shifting landscape... the Fold..."_

* * *

Hearing the growing desperation in his voice, and knowing the gravity of the situation the troop was in, Jesse suddenly felt a great sense of urgency. She burst forward with a rush of forceful energy, the sheer speed of which stripped the wood-lined walls of their paintings and adornments. At the end of the hall, the front desk of the Hotline chamber was unattended, as it usually was since Trench left office. Jesse wasn't a fan of the sign-in sheet he implemented, seeing as nobody but Ahti and herself ever dared to enter the room. Perhaps it was the hot-off-the-printing-press PSA posters warning that anyone who used the Hotline would come to a gruesome end; regardless, it slowed Jesse down naught in her mad dash for the red phone. Her fleeting footsteps echoed off of the metal walkway, every passing moment filled with a different wracking noise, every present second adding to her growing unease.

As soon as she entered the glass-encased room, she pulled the handset right up to her ear with the power imbued to her by the floppy disk Object of Power. There was no time to waste getting comfortable in the leather chair, despite what a ritual doing so had become. Much to Jesse's surprise, and confusion, there was a dial tone on the other end. Normally, the Hotline was instantaneous and effortless. No interference, no holding times, no obnoxious music or comfort tones. Instead, she was presented with an off-hook tone, an indicator that the caller had been absent for an extended amount of time. The line hung for a while, the tone blaring out of the diaphragm as she took a seat to recoup herself.

"What is going on here? What happened to them? I'm not... I'm not too late, am I...?"

After a moment of contemplative silence, the tone went dead, replaced by the sound of muffled radio interference. Polaris suggested Jesse towards the noise with healthy hesitation. It was not unlike the distorted tunes of the black pyramid, a caller neither of them were fond to answer. Nevertheless, the circumstances were unprecedented, and few beings were as knowledgeable as the Board... Despite their reluctance to share the wealth of that knowledge. She picked the handset up again, presented with the all-too-familiar voices of the Board's broadcasting.

"Something is wrong and nothing about this is right. I need answers. Now, please."

**< Unexpected interference / disappearance. Callers / others have intercepted other / others. Direct contact / exploratory nostalgia advised. > **

"I saw where they were. That was the Hand slide. That was where the Hiss came from. Tell it to me straight - what happened to them?"

**< Unknown / unknown / unknown / unknown / unknown. > **

"Wow. Thanks. Why do you even bother calling me if all you're gonna say is this useless crap? I need more than that."

**< We are genuine / no lies this time. Cooperation / duality is essential. > **

"Did you just... Huh. Look, I know this is serious, but I'm serious too. Those men, those rangers, I need to get in contact with them as soon as possible. If they found a threshold that leads to the Hand slide, we're going to have some very big problems."

**< Recipients unavailable / howling tone. Public / Private switched telephone network closed / expired in alternate planes / networks. > **

"They're not dead. If they were already dead, the Hotline could still reach them. They were on an active line, but something must have interrupted them. They're the only ones who can tell me what happened, where they were, how they got there."

**< Please hold / Enjoy the music. >**

With that, the Board left the call, leaving Jesse with only the scathing sound of cacophonous radio interference. It was a horrid clamor, hard to even listen to, but assured a small flickering of optimism in Jesse. The Board had graciously left the line open, in the hopes that the men from Slidescape-36 would soon send out their cryptic SOS once again. If the Board was indeed telling the truth - a tentative assessment at best - then only the rangers in that squad could tell Jesse how to help them. This had been the first notable crisis in the Bureau since the invasion of the Hiss, and the first that she was wholly unprepared for. The Hiss had been dealt with: every node destroyed, every altered item cleansed, every corrupted agent dispatched. Despite the arduous laboring of everyone in the Oldest House, Jesse couldn't shake the feeling that their work was far from over. In the meantime, Jesse made it her mission to inform the people of the Bureau of the situation, starting with none other than her favorite Head of Research - Emily Pope.


End file.
